Mehdi Masroor Biswas remanded in judicial custody till January 16

The police claimed that Biswas was in direct touch with a few ISIS militants, which was established through his direct messages to them via his Twitter handle @shamiwitness.

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Aravind Gowda

Bengaluru

January 3, 2015

UPDATED: January 3, 2015 10:13 IST

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who was arrested for tweeting on behalf of the terrorist organisation ISIS, was remanded in judicial custody on Friday by a Bengaluru court after the police said that they had completed his interrogation. He was remanded in judicial custody till January 16. However, he will be accessible to the police as and when required.

The police claimed that Biswas was in direct touch with a few ISIS militants, which was established through his direct messages to them via his Twitter handle @shamiwitness. Britain's Channel 4 News exposed this during the second week of December that led to his arrest.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters: "During interrogation, we figured that he (Biswas) was in direct touch with ISIS fighters. We have gathered evidence to show that he supported IS. Apart from proactively tweeting for the group, his messages prove that he encouraged youths to join the organisation."

The police also said that their investigation into his role in working as a propagandist was complete. "He cooperated during interrogation and never refused to share any information that we sought. We will seek his custody if required in the coming days based on inputs from the National Investigation Agency," a police source said.

A probe officer said: "A conversation with him will give an impression that the terror organisation gave him some kind of training. But that never happened. On the contrary, he acquired indepth knowledge of IS by reading extensively on the internet."

The police have collected information of IS militants with whom he was in touch via his Twitter handles. On occasions, he had exclusive access to pictures and videos of IS militants beheading hostages. The Bengaluru police have shared this information with the NIA.

Sources added: "We have completed the probe. We have not yet decided on filing the charge-sheet as information from other agencies is awaited."